Course Standards
General Course Information and Notes
General Notes
The purpose of this course is to enable students to develop basic knowledge and skills in communication, meeting human needs, and conflict resolution.The content should include the following:
- Demonstrate knowledge of the functions and responsibilities of peer facilitators (e.g., listening, confidentiality, team building, conflict resolution, intervention).
- Demonstrate awareness of varied behavioral responses to situational, environmental, and chemical elements; and the impact of subsequent decision-making on self and others.
- Demonstrate knowledge of basic human needs (e.g., food, clothing, shelter, recognition, development, security, identity) and the ways in which they can be met while developing group cohesion.
- Demonstrate use of basic facilitative communication skills (e.g., listening, questioning, feedback, paraphrasing, nonverbal communication, nonjudgmental response).
- Identify own feelings and needs and communicate them in a positive way.
- Demonstrate awareness of leadership styles (e.g., authoritarian, democratic, permissive).
- Demonstrate awareness of methods for dealing with conflict (e.g., communication, assertion, avoidance, aggression) and steps to resolution (i.e., set rules, gather perspectives, identify needs and goals, create and evaluate options, and generate agreement)
- Make inferences and justify conclusions from sample surveys, experiments, and observational studies.
Instructional Practices Teaching from a well-written, grade-level textbook enhances students' content area knowledge and also strengthens their ability to comprehend longer, complex reading passages on any topic for any reason. Using the following instructional practices also helps student learning:
- Reading assignments from longer text passages as well as shorter ones when text is extremely complex.
- Making close reading and rereading of texts central to lesson.
- Asking high-level, text-specific questions and requiring high-level, complex tasks and assignments.
- Requiring students to support answers with evidence from the text.
- Providing extensive text-based research and writing opportunities (claims and evidence).
English Language Development ELD Standards Special Notes Section:
Teachers are required to provide listening, speaking, reading and writing instruction that allows English language learners (ELL) to communicate for social and instructional purposes within the school setting. For the given level of English language proficiency and with visual, graphic, or interactive support, students will interact with grade level words, expressions, sentences and discourse to process or produce language necessary for academic success. The ELD standard should specify a relevant content area concept or topic of study chosen by curriculum developers and teachers which maximizes an ELL’s need for communication and social skills. To access an ELL supporting document which delineates performance definitions and descriptors, please click on the following link: https://cpalmsmediaprod.blob.core.windows.net/uploads/docs/standards/eld/si.pdf
General Information
Qualifications
As well as any certification requirements listed on the course description, the following qualifications may also be acceptable for the course:
Any field when certification reflects a bachelor or higher degree.